Quil Lawrence
Quil Lawrence is a New York-based correspondent for NPR News, covering veterans' issues nationwide. He won a Robert F. Kennedy Award for his coverage of American veterans and a Gracie Award for coverage of female combat veterans. In 2019 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America honored Quil with its IAVA Salutes Award for Leadership in Journalism.
Lawrence started his career in radio by interviewing con men in Tangier, Morocco. He then moved to Bogota, Colombia, and covered Latin America for NPR, the BBC, and The LA Times.
In the Spring of 2000, a Pew Fellowship sponsored his first trips to Iraq — that reporting experience eventually built the foundation for his first book, Invisible Nation: How the Kurds' Quest for Statehood is Shaping Iraq and the Middle East (Bloomsbury, 2009).
Lawrence has reported from throughout the Arab world and from Sudan, Cuba, Pakistan, Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank. He covered Iraq and Afghanistan for twelve years, serving as NPR's Bureau Chief in Baghdad and Kabul. He covered the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the second battle of Fallujah in 2004, as well as politics, culture, and war in both countries.
In 2012, Lawrence returned to the U.S. to cover the millions of men and women who have served at war, both recently and in past generations. NPR is possibly unique among major news organizations in dedicating a full-time correspondent to veterans and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
A native of Maine, Lawrence studied history at Brandeis University, with concentrations in the Middle East and Latin America. He is fluent in Spanish and conversant in Arabic.
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The oversight board that supervises Puerto Rico's indebted government met publicly today for the first-time in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. The board heard sobering statistics about the extent of the damage and discussed austerity measures to fix the island's broken economy.
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A new study by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs suggests that even mild exposure to blasts in Iraq and Afghanistan may cause long term breathing problems.
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Gettysburg, Pa., where Union forces turned the tide of the Civil War in a horrific battle, has the largest number of Confederate monuments in the country. The national park there has been the scene of reconciliation between north and south, but current events suggest that reconciliation is still an ongoing process.
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President Trump spoke of his administration's achievements in reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs. NPR's Quil Lawrence fact checks the president.
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Researchers say putting guns out of reach reduces the chances that suicidal veterans could take their own lives, but changing the law is a controversial idea. -
Veterans have a significantly higher rate of suicide than civilians. The numbers for female veterans, however, are two to five times higher than their civilian counterparts.
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Money from the Veterans Choice Act, which was meant to improve medical staffing levels at VA health centers, has had little impact on hiring numbers and how quickly vets get access to medical care. -
If the Affordable Care Act is repealed, some of those left uninsured will be veterans. They may turn to the VA, further burdening a troubled health care system. -
Twenty-two million Americans served in the military, but the vast majority are from the Vietnam and Korea generations. They're getting older now, and many live in rural or remote places like Alaska. -
Toyota announced this year that it's backing the return of the iBOT, which went out of production in 2009. Inventor Dean Kamen says a reboot would include improvements using the latest technology.
